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"Ever wonder if City Council is as contentious and chaotic as it is sometimes portrayed? Here you can get a progressive perspective on some of the issues from someone who spent four years in the trenches. Totally unbiased, though!Feel free to comment but keep it respectful, just like they do at council."

Monday, November 18, 2013

Coming up: Standing committee appointments

It's that time of year again, the time
when visions of committee chair appointments are dancing in the heads
of our council.

But it's not just the individual
councillors who are affected. The decisions that will be made this
week will significantly impact the functioning of the entire council
and therefore the city as a whole. It is through committees
that issues confronting council are studied and debated and
recommendations are made. The vast majority of these will go
unchallenged by council as a whole since only a few councillors take
the time and effort to keep abreast of what is happening on
committees on which they do not serve if the issue is not directly
related to their wards.

You may recall the fiasco that we experienced last year at this time. The mayor, with the aid of the
longest serving councillor, Bud Polhill, ensured that all but one of
the standing committees were dominated by his then supporters, and only members
of the Fontana 8 were granted chair positions. Several councillors
who were not part of the self-selected group were limited to serving
on one committee, although a councillor may serve on two.

When I served on council there was
competition for both standing committee chair positions but there was a real
effort to try to accommodate individual preferences as well as
encouraging members to rotate their membership, not always an easy
task. The work of some committees is more challenging and time
consuming than others and bring you into contact with a different set
of lobbyists. There may be more media attention as well.

No doubt these variables were on the
minds of at least some of the councillors when they were listing
their choices in order of preference, an exercise that all are asked
to undertake. Specify your choices from 1 to 5 in order of
preference, 1 being first choice, 5 meaning "not with a ten-foot pole".

Just around the calendar is the 2014
municipal election. A councillor who is seeking re-election may have
to consider which will be more beneficial: selecting a high profile
committee to chair or finding something easy that gives you lots of
time to campaign. Those not seeking re-election won't care, but they
may have their sights on other opportunities that have to be taken
into account.

The only councillor to have
conclusively ruled out another municipal run is Nancy Branscombe.
She's not seeking out any chair positions; she's quite happy to stick
with Community and Protective Services (CPSC), a committee that
rarely has long meetings, and if needed, take on Civic Works, which
involves a lot of tenders but is also fairly efficient. In fact, she
hasn't indicated any interest in anything else. Her focus is on the
provincial election expected in the spring.

And who can blame her? She put a lot of
blood, sweat and tears into heading up the Services Review Committee
for two or three years only to have all the work ignored, even
undermined, by a slim majority of councillors at budget time. Who
needs that?

Joe Swan, too, indicated a preference
for only two committees. He wants the big stuff, the committees that
deal with administration and finances and growth. He chairs the
Investment and Economic Prosperity Committee (IEPC), the committee of
big ideas and small pockets, and he wants to keep that position,
although he is being challenged by Matt Brown, his vice-chair. Brown
is planning to run for mayor, and chairing that committee might look
good on his resume. Swan also wants to keep his spot on the
mayor-chaired Corporate Services Committee which deals with finances
and human resources. The latter choice is somewhat ironic considering
his current problems at Orchestra London: losing his highly respected
artistic director, Alain Trudel, and having difficulty negotiating a
deal with the musicians.

Besides wanting to chair the IEPC,
Brown (that's Matt, not Denise) has expressed an interest in the
Civic Works Committee. Why not? He's on it now, nothing new to learn.
It won't take much time and time is what he needs to campaign for
mayor while still holding down a teaching job.

One committee that takes a lot of time,
work and expertise is the Planning and Environment Committee (PEC).
This year there aren't many clamouring to be on it, only three, and
all want to be chair. Bud Polhill has held that position throughout
this term, and he likes it. He knows all the developers who will come
before the committee with their applications and requests for
delegation status. There's hardly a one that doesn't donate
generously to his campaigns so he can afford the time. He doesn't
have to beat the bushes to find contributors.

The third contender is Sandy White. Her
understanding of planning is minimal; she has yet to ask a relevant
question. Perhaps that's why she wants to be chair. It would free her
from asking any questions until other members of the committee had
done so. All that would be left is to ask the applicant “How can we
help get you what you want?” and “Is that fast enough for you?”

Dale Henderson, too, has indicated he
wouldn't mind serving on PEC. He's there now and has lots of ideas
for doing things differently. The planning process, the legislation,
the regulatory authorities are all too cumbersome for him. But he
doesn't mind making irrelevant observations and motions that can't
find a seconder. It's his second choice, next to IEPC, on which he
already serves as well. Blue sky thinking fits in a little better
there, but he forgets that his job is to make decisions. He keeps
wanting to re-invent the process or hi-jack it entirely. He has
hinted that he may not be running again; he's thinking of trying his
luck in the municipality where he resides.

Then there's Bill Armstrong. He doesn't
like to spend any more time at city hall than he has to, which is why
he lobbied hard to get funding for an office in his ward. He is
unique in his statement of preferences: he wants to serve on only
one standing committee, the Community and Protective Services Committee. Over the years,
that has been his home. He has rarely served on anything else.

Bryant is not looking for any changes
to her current responsibilities; she wants to continue on Corporate
Services Committee and CPSC. She is no longer interested in chairing
either of them, nor any other that she may be required to join.
Similarly, Paul VanMeerbergen would like an extension of his
membership on Civic Works and IEPC. Just don't make him a chair. He
would rather just say “No.” In fact, he effectively said no to
all other committees, giving them all the lowest possible ranking of
5.

Denise Brown, on the other hand, wants
to stick with CPSC and would be willing to take on Civic Works, but,
in either event, she wants to be the chair. She has gotten a taste of
chairing meetings and she likes it. She may run into problems getting
the needed support from the mayor, however, since she abandoned the
Fontana 8 earlier this year.

Like Brown, Usher is looking to
continue his current responsibilities on the CPSC and Civic Works.
But he does like to chair and hasn't had a chance to do so this past
year. He's contesting Brown for chairing the Civic Works Committee.
He needs something current to add to his list of responsibilities at
the bottom of his signature.

Hubert, too, would like to chair a
committee, preferably Civic Works, which seems to be almost
everyone’s choice, but he's prepared to chair Planning if he can't
get his first or second choice. He would also like to get a shot at
membership on the mayor's Corporate Services Committee. This past
year, he was blocked by the mayor's cronies from serving on any
committee other than planning. It may have put a damper on any
thoughts he may have had about running for mayor, especially now that
Matt Brown has all but declared. But there is still time, and a chair
position is helpful whether running for mayor or ward councillor.

And finally, there is Orser. Like
several others, he is looking for no changes. The positions he
currently holds—Civic Works and IEPC—are not too demanding and
provide enough publicity. If not, he will be sure to come up with
something eye-catching, even outrageous, and the media loves it. That
leaves him plenty of time to peddle his fridge magnets door to door
by day and spout incoherently and ungrammatically on Facebook by night.

So how will it all come out?

Given what happened last time, I would
not expect significant changes from the current line-up, but one can
never tell. I can indicate, however, how I think the committees should be
populated considering what we have to work with and trying to get the
best for the city while ensuring that our councillors get as much
diversified experience as possible. Chair positions are given to
those who have been blocked previously and who have demonstrated
skill in chairing meetings. Additionally, I took into consideration
the role of the administration; staff need to be able to deal with a
chair who has some grasp of the issues and processes before the
committee.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

so how did you do on your picks? Seems Matt doesn't really care about planning after all. Guess he prefers to put Chair on his campaign lit. Also, Planning Cte meetings are long - must take away from campaigning time if you are on it, eh?